Vozes Cabuleiras: Resistance and Continuity

[PT] A versão em português está disponível no Relatório dos Dias Donut Global 2025 do Donut Brasil. Você pode baixar o PDF no fim da página, em Attachments.

The gathering “Vozes Cabuleiras: Resistance and Continuity” was part of the programme of the Global Donut Days 2025 in Salvador, Brazil, and took place at the Cabula Campus of the State University of Bahia (UNEB), within a territory deeply rooted in the memory, history and everyday life of the local community.

The event brought together community leaders from Cabula, articulated by cultural producer Adriano Andrade, students from UNEB’s Law programme, Professor Cloves Araújo, and the Donut Brasil team.

The activity marked the celebratory opening of a Participatory Action Research (PAR) process under development in the territory, in which residents act as subjects and co-authors of knowledge and action. Drawing on the tools of Doughnut Economics and on iterative cycles of collective planning, action and reflection, the process seeks to identify real needs, test practical responses and jointly review pathways, so that an eco-social transition can be conceived and built from the lived realities of Cabula.

The day began with a shared outdoor breakfast, followed by entry into a space carefully prepared with local artworks and a scenography that evoked the forest.

Leaves covered the floor and branches occupied walls, doors and corners, creating a sensory atmosphere that recalled Afro-Bahian memory and the spiritual landscapes of the territory. This symbolic environment reinforced the centrality of culture, ancestry and the relationship with nature as foundations of the gathering.

Historian Janice de Sena Nicolin, a doctoral candidate in Education and Contemporary Studies and coordinator of the Artistic-Cultural Association Odeart, led a historical contextualisation of Cabula, highlighting its values, forms of resistance and the structural obstacles faced by the neighbourhood. By stating that “we are in the territory of Cabula”, Janice emphasised that Cabula is not merely a geographical area, but a lived territory, constituted by people, memories, relationships and continuities. According to her, the collective challenge lies in helping communities find balance between external access and internal strengthening, grounded in their own ancestral references.

As community leaders introduced themselves, Cabula emerged as a living and dynamic territory, shaped by rituals, oral histories and the everyday practices of the terreiros. These practices were recognised not only as cultural expressions, but as forms of knowledge production that transmit memory and resist the erasure of Afro-Brazilian histories. Women stood out as guardians of ancestry and knowledge, rooted in traditions of Angolan, Yoruba and Congo origin.

Following the reaffirmation of the territory’s historical and quilombola significance — and a collective lunch featuring caruru — the second part of the day began with the workshop “Entering the Doughnut”. Participants formed a large standing circle, symbolically representing the Doughnut, to reflect on belonging, both as people of Cabula and as part of the planetary community. The exercise encouraged visions of prosperity that connect social well-being with respect for ecological limits.

During the workshop, the group engaged in dialogue about the territory’s social and environmental priorities. Cultural pride, symbolic richness and Cabula’s collective potential emerged strongly, alongside persistent challenges related to social inequalities, infrastructural limitations and systemic barriers. The abundance of vegetation and natural beauty strengthens residents’ connection to place, while the historical and cultural heritage sustains a powerful local identity, even as it faces threats from recent processes of cultural erosion.

Participants identified cultural events, craft fairs and immersive experiences — such as dance, percussion and collective meals — as promising pathways to strengthen social inclusion, foster intercultural exchange and generate economic alternatives aligned with regenerative economies. Initiatives such as textile design workshops in community spaces reflect the desire to develop local skills and create opportunities that go beyond subsistence-based logic.

At the same time, significant structural challenges were made explicit: limited access to basic public services such as education, healthcare and safety; scarcity of resources for cultural production and digital inclusion; and the heightened vulnerability of young people, particularly due to the lack of reintegration programmes for youth with criminal records. The stigmatisation of Candomblé and associated cultural practices was also highlighted, alongside internal distrust within the territory, which hinders collaboration, shared resource management and long-term community action.

Despite these challenges, residents articulated clear and constructive pathways for the future. These included mapping and promoting local initiatives through georeferenced platforms; strengthening an inclusive culture that values local production without reproducing predatory models; creating community-led training programmes to empower young people and diversify the economy; and proposing collective spaces and participatory forums — such as community kitchens and popular councils — to deepen collaboration and expand educational and professional horizons for children and young people.

“The world needs to find its way home, according to our ancestry.”
— Janice Nicolin

The Global Donut Day 2025 in Salvador concluded with a performance by the group Samba Mãos no Couro, whose presentation pulsed with resistance, vitality and creative joy, powerfully affirming the spirit of continuity, struggle and collective imagination of the Cabula territory.